


Fireteam Daybreak: Discharge

by TheShadowsmiths



Series: Fireteam Daybreak [4]
Category: Destiny (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, FireteamDaybreak, destinythegame - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-07
Updated: 2016-06-07
Packaged: 2018-11-12 07:04:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11156760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheShadowsmiths/pseuds/TheShadowsmiths
Summary: Laila has agreed to teach Nikel the basics of Bladedancing, but when Cayde butts in and runs his mouth, she issues a challenge.





	Fireteam Daybreak: Discharge

**Author's Note:**

> **Find this on Bungie.net** : [Bungie.net](https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/206119025)  
>  **Deviantart** : http://fav.me/da5icyj  
>  **Tumblr** : <http://fireteam-daybreak.tumblr.com/post/145569508513/discharge>

Static snapped angrily between Nik’s hand and the Arcblade, and he let out a yelp of surprise as it clattered to the concrete with a shrill ring.

A quiet whirr escaped the Exo’s chassis like a sigh as she bent down to pick up the knife and flipped it around to grasp the sharp end firmly with her thumb over the flat edge. “You need to calm down,” Laila assured and held it out to him again with stern cyan bulbs fixated on sunburnt eyes. “If you panic and lose your focus, you _will_ burn out.”

Fear pooled into him again and he swallowed hard as the color drained out of his face. Eyes nervously inspected the crackling blade in Laila’s hand as anxiety crawled up and down his spine in uncomfortable waves. He watched the way the light flowed through her, carrying the current as it funneled into her through her ghost and raced through her circuits before settling into the metal of the knife. Arc sparked off of her arms and shoulders in furious bursts that made his heart palpitate. The death scars that spidered across his back burned with a sharp sting and he shuddered hard, heartbeat throbbing in his ears as he recalled the explosion with vivid clarity the pain of every nerve ending in his body catching fire simultaneously, of everything inside of him wanting to burst… he even remembered thinking that he couldn’t die fast enough.

Hesitation overcame him and he took half a step back.

Laila watched him carefully as he processed, not missing the flicker of doubt in his eyes and his dejected posture. Shutters half-lidded, corners of her mouth turned down just more than usual, and head tilted in sympathy. “If it helps… it’s similar to using your Golden Gun,” she tried again.

Nik blinked back at her with a blank look, shook the memory from his mind as he caught the tail end of what she’d said. No _way_ Arc energy was like Solar fire. “Can you… elaborate?”

A soft smile pulled into her faceplates and throat lights flashed soft just once, happy to oblige.

“Sure…”

She took back her outstretched hand and tossed the blade up into the air over itself, snatched it by the hilt with an inverted grip and relaxed it upright, flat against her forearm. “Firing your shots exhausts your light in bursts… and as you do you open and close the light channel at will, do you understand?”

“Yeah…”

“When you Bladedance, you need to leave the channel open until you’re finished,” she explained with a pause as she paced slowly in front of him, trying to find the words to explain the complexity of the concept in the clearest way possible. “Hunters don’t have the capacity to store Arc the same way Titans or Warlocks can… A Striker is like a rechargeable battery- continually taking in and storing substantial amounts of Arc to release with great force. And a Stormcaller, more like a generator, calling down and pushing out new Arc from every fiber of their being. It _becomes_ them. But Bladedancers…” She stopped and turned sharp on her heel to stretch her arm out long with the tip of the blade and tap the hunting knife strapped to his forearm; it sparked violently with a bright flash that made him jump.  
“We are conduits- light enters the body and swarms until it’s given a contact point for release, and that contact is the Arcblade.” 

The explanation made so much more sense to him when she put it that way… but hesitation lingered and he remained silent. 

“It’s a current that needs continuous release… just take it in and discharge it right away,” she coaxed as she extended her Arcblade to him again in a confident gesture.

But Nik withdrew on pure instinct as she confronted him with his worst fears, again; eyes shut tight and jaw clenched. He was still reeling from the memory of his death. “I don’t think I can do this-”

“Yes you can,” she replied calmly before he could get himself too worked up. Laila understood the circumstances of his mortal death were holding him back, it was the reason she had volunteered to teach him to begin with. Whether or not he’d choose to Bladedance one day didn’t matter as much as overcoming his fears, and she wasn’t about to let him give up when he was so close to success.   
“Don’t be afraid of it- it’s not going to hurt you if you just let it in. Accept it as part of yourself and channel it into the blade. It will be your lightning rod, you’ll be just fine…” 

Nik’s eyes turned to her in response to her gentleness, and she met them with a serene smile that immediately put him at ease.

“I promise.”

He wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to understand how an Exo could be so soft, so understanding of the human condition, but he appreciated her concern. It was endearing.   
Nik steeled his resolve, swallowed his fear, and reached his hand toward the the blade again, this time with confidence that he would succeed. He couldn’t let her efforts go to waste.

“Oh come on, just _grab the damn thing already_!” came Cayde’s impatient voice from across the Concordat square, at which Nik jumped and drew back as Laila turned and shot him a dirty look over her shoulder and a deep blue flash in her throat.   
Innocent, over-exaggerated shrug raised with both hands in the air with a quick yellow blink in his jaw and a slight downward press of his brow plates. “Whaaaaaat…? I’m just tryin’ to motivate him!”

“He doesn’t need _that_ kind of motivation…” she chided as she dispelled the arc from around her body, took back the blade and paced toward Cayde with a quiet smirk. “Ridiculing fear won’t yield results for everyone like it did you.”

“Neither will babying him…” he mumbled quietly and rolled his eyes.

“Patience is crucial to overcoming fear,” she insisted, “Besides… his goal isn’t to use this ability, just to understand it enough to not fear it.”

The Exo scoffed with a loud thrum, threw his feet to the floor from their perch on the table, and used the momentum to hoist himself upright in and swaggered in their direction. “Didn’t you tell me that true understanding is mastery of one’s element…?” he teased, eyed Nik with a small wink, which made him roll his eyes uncomfortably.

Laila’s cheeks flashed as she sparked a little of her Arc off in annoyance, and she rolled her eyes as she took a few steps away from him. As much as she liked Cayde, sometimes his haughtiness was hard to stomach.

“Okay okay…” he backtracked and held up his hands in surrender as he stepped idly from one side to the other. “But an amatuer level of ability still implies a lack of understanding. He needs to use it enough to at least be _comfortable_ with it.”

“And he will… in time.”

“It’s been three days, he should have at least _held_ it by now.”

“You mean like you so easily managed?” she chided with a sarcastic little smile as she circled back to him in pompous step.

“Well no, but I mean…”

“Because if I remember correctly, I recall your attempts at channeling Arc were equally as troublesome.”

“What!?” Cayde chuckled nervously and turned his head away, pressed his brow-plates together and narrowed his eyes as he waved her off. “Nah… you’re mistaken- your memory’s just jumbled,” he commented without thinking. “I’m a great Bladedancer!”

Laila’s jaw froze and she let the jab at her memory slide for the moment and clarified, “I didn’t say you weren’t, I meant you were terrified of the Arc when you learned to use it.”

“ _Exactly_ , which is what makes me so qualified to give him advice.” Cayde’s eyes settled on her and the light dimmed out of his cheeks as shutters flickered defensively. “I’ve been there, I know it’s not as scary as he’s making it out to be.”

Laila remembered Cayde’s early attempts at Bladedancing, and she remembered how he’d hesitated, for the same reasons Nik hesitated now: Fear of death or irreparable harm.

In spite of the fact that electrical currents were what kept Exo alive, they were just as susceptible to the dangers of Arc energy, if not more vulnerable, because of their delicate inner-workings. Exos reborn with a natural affinity for Arc ( _like Laila_ ) rarely had to work hard to control the flow of the current, and the same could be said for any Guardian who naturally channeled Arc. But the discipline required of Exos who weren’t naturals made it much harder for them to resonate without incident. Because of the volatility of the nature of Arc, and the danger static discharge posed to their circuitry, it had been anything but easy for Cayde to shut off the subroutines that were constantly calculating the odds of death by Arc Flash, or significant memory loss or paralyzation by Static Shock. It had taken him weeks to hold an Arcblade without trembling.  
Of Fireteam Maverick, he had been the third to learn from her, and he still had a long way to go before he could effectively use Arc in harried combat; of all the things she’d forgotten, she _hadn’t_ forgotten that.

Nik felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end, and he watched them nervously as he backed away and quietly ducked into the building behind them, out of the quad and away from the imminent fight; he’d seen Wylie get into enough bar fights to know where this was going, and he knew that even Laila, sweet as can be, couldn’t resist knocking a prideful prick from their pedestal.

 

Merric could sense the shift in her light from where he stood, and he turned and stepped outside onto the balcony to peer down at them curiously but couldn’t make out much more than the light of Laila’s Arc, which had been flowing on and off all afternoon. “Minnie, what’s going on over there?”

The black and white spotted ghost materialized mid-flight from over his shoulder on command, red bulb tracing over him for a moment before turning her attention back to the group. “I don’t know… let me find out.”

 

The playfulness drained out of her eyes, replaced by something much more serious and unfamiliar- anger wasn’t an emotion she processed often, and when she did it was quiet, directed, and stunning. A forced smile pushed at her exodermis and her brow hardened. “Alright, wise-guy…”  she challenged with a prideful grin and narrow eyes, arms dropped to her sides as she shifted her weight from one hip to the other, dug her feet into the earth and drug one foot behind her by the toe. “If you understand as well as you say you do, you should be able to defeat me no problem.”

“What!?”

 

Minnie lofted back in surprise with an amused chirp as the response came through from Laila’s ghost Nyx, just as Nikel popped up the stairs.

“What is it?” Merric asked.

“Well…” The ghost hesitated to answer his question, gaze cast to the ground before it lifted to look at him. “You’re gonna wanna hear this.”

“Hear what?” Andal’s head whipped up inquisitively from his conversation with Bennett, excitement hidden behind big brown eyes and a fatherly demeanor as they drifted toward Nikel coming up the stairs.

“Pretty sure Cayde’s about to get his ass kicked again,” Nik answered with a gesture over his shoulder as he strolled into the room, his ghost Callie nearly hugging his shoulder as she followed.

The Vanguard’s brows lifted in surprise as he half-stood and turned to look out the window, one hand over the back of the sofa. “What? Why? What’d he do _now_!?” he blurted out in surprise, holding back laughter through a big grin.

“He insulted Laila’s pride,” Merric answered with the biggest smirk they’d ever seen on him, turned his head and directed the question at Nik. “Didn’t he?”

The Awoken shrugged helplessly and nodded with a quiet, “ _Ehhhh… yeah_.”

Bennett eyed Merric uncertainly as he shifted forward in his seat next to Andal to stand up and follow the gazes of the rest of the bunch. “Then why are ye smilin’?” the Aussie asked and crossed his arms.

The Exo flashed hot red lights in his throat with an audible thrum. “Because she’s going to put him in his place… and I’ve been waiting a _loooong time_ to see that.”

Bennett blinked hard and lifted a hand to stroke through long auburn locks in nervous habit, hazel eyes surveying the surrounding area. There were some stray Guardians of the Concordat and a handful of civilians discussing trade shipments from the main tower. If the fight spilled out of the area they’d been training in, it was likely to endanger lives. “Aren’t ya gonna stop em’…?” he glanced to the Vanguard and asked incredulously.

Andal let a reserved laugh roll out of him that could have easily lit up the room, if not for the strong light of the setting sun, and responded after a moment of thought. “Nah…” He shrugged.

“What? Why not?”

“What’s the point…?“ The hunter stretched a big, toothy grin from ear to ear as he took the spot next to Merric and leaned one elbow on his shoulder. “A little healthy competition among comrades never hurt… besides,” he paused, popped his brows and shook his head with a heavy sigh. “If I stop this now, Laila’s gonna give me the cold shoulder for the next two weeks… and I can’t afford that.”

Merric chuckled beside him, shoulders quaking and head shaking in agreement.

“Cayde talked himself into this mess… and the kid’s gotta learn sooner or later, sometimes y’just gotta keep your big mouth shut.”

“… but aren’t’cha gonna warn th-”

“Benny,” Andal reassured with a firmness in his eyes. “It’ll be alright, just let the kids fight this out.”

 

Laila summoned her Arcblade again with a bright flash and a violent thunderclap that energized the brick under their feet, and once the air had settled, Laila gestured for him to attack her with a one-handed taunt. “You think you know better than me…? Then _show me your mastery_ ,” she challenged, nearly growling it out.

For a moment, Cayde froze, processes halted and mouth lights bright- Laila was a live-wire in every sense of the word, threatening but intriguing, unapproachable; he may have been cocky, but he wasn’t stupid. She was one of the most skilled ( _and most experienced_ ) Bladedancers in the Vanguard’s ranks, and while he’d never witnessed her at full strength, he’d heard the stories and seen flashes of it here and there during her performances in the Crucible. Cayde knew well enough to know he didn’t want to be caught on the other end of her Arcblade. “C’mon Laila, that’s not what I meant, I don’t wanna fight you-”

“Why not?” she asked almost immediately with a pop of her brow-plate, “Afraid you’ll lose…?”

“What’s wrong, Cayde? Why the hesitation?” Andal teased with a raspy voice as he yelled down to him.

Head jerked back to look up at the man with an exasperated groan, shoulders sunken. “Not you too!” His voice nearly cracked as it hit the peak of his tonal range.

“You got this…! I have faith in you, buddy!”

The Vanguard feigned confidence with a lazy thumbs-up that Cayde knew to be sarcasm and made him groan. He was so full of shit and he knew it. “Thanks for the vote of confidence!” he retorted after a frustrated pause.

Nik eyed him with a knowing grin and rolled his eyes and glanced down, then over at the other men. “So uh… how long do you think he’s gonna last..?”

“Ohhhh, I give him a few minutes at the most.”

Nik’s laughter was raucous and telling. “You’re not giving much credence to Cayde’s Bladedancing ability.”

“Mmmmm, I wouldn’t say that…” he mused, “Cayde’s a good bladedancer, he’s just nowhere near her level. Laila has dedicated all of her time and energy to perfecting her Bladedancing, she never even worried about being half-decent at anything else… It’s no contest.”

“You willing to put a little money on that?” Nik’s brows popped with a small smirk as Andal’s face twisted with conflicted interest while he stroked his beard. “I give him a minute.”

“Ah, c’mon blokes… bettin’ how long e’sgonna last’s in poor taste…” Bennett scolded.

“10k all around- closest bet to time without going over wins the pot.”

Both men blinked and glanced at each other. Nik’s offer was tempting, almost made the for-sure hustle worth betting on, and they resented him for that… but after a pause Bennett cleared his throat and mumbled, “Minnit thirty.”

“Fine,” Andal followed, “Two minutes.”

 

Cayde stuttered a helpless whine and a pathetic look as he listened to the hunters prattle on making their bets, _against him_. “O-oh, COME ON!” He groaned in frustration as he mulled over his options. Boy had he drawn the short stick this time… Cayde knew it was his own doing, but all the same, he didn’t want to fight her- not just because he didn’t want to or because he was intimidated by her ability, but also because he didn’t want to enable his friends in their gambling. If anything, he wanted to forfeit and ruin all their bets out of spite; but he couldn’t not fight her either. His pride was at stake.

 

_“He won’t do it, he’s not gonna do it.”_

_“Shh shh, just give him a minute…”_

 

The courtyard went quiet as they stared each other down: Laila a roiling storm of chaos and calm, ready to fight, Cayde still hoping she’d change her mind, though he was learning quickly that she was even more stubborn than him.

Cyan bulbs locked onto hers as shutter-lids narrowed and opened in anticipation, fingers twitched at his side as he instinctively reached for his knife, still second-guessing, still debating…

“ _COME ON LAI, KICK HIS ASS!_ ”

For a moment she paused, brow lifted in pleasant surprise at Merric’s voice ( _which seemed to nearly double her resolve_ ), and she smirked.  
“Well then…? Come on Cayde, show them how it’s done.”

Something inside of him snapped at the challenge, issued like a command, and he couldn’t resist.  
Cayde felt the doubt flush out of him as light poured in, followed by the tingle of the arc surge in his circuits. The force of it swelled and cycled through him in tight, blinding circles, until it exploded out through his hand into the erratic shape of a Cutlass, it’s edge jagged and the curve misshapen. Compared to the precise, concentrated cluster of her arc and the smooth edge of the Scimitar, it was just another reminder of the gap in their ability. He would lose this fight, that much had already been determined.  
“Just do me a favor, would ya…?” Cayde squinted and cleared his throat. “… _don’t kill me_?”

He could see her roll her eyes as she lunged and hurled a shockwave his way. Cayde didn’t have much time to react, but he tucked and rolled out of the way as the arc wave sped by him in a crackling frenzy, popped back up onto his feet and let his momentum carry him until he skid to a stop. When he looked up a second later, she was already gone, blinking wildly off the walls from point to point. Cayde threw his arms up just in time to block the blade as she plummeted down hard on him from above; the pavement cracked at the pressure and as their arc collided it shot off in angry bolts. With a rough shove he forced her away and sent her flying through the air, but she found her bearings, twirled mid-flight and landed on her toes.

The huntress dropped to her knees as he launched a predictable counter and didn’t even blink as his blade whizzed over the top of her head, and again darted out of the way of his backhanded follow-up with a backhanded strike of her own that knocked away his blade with a loud spark. Laila threw one leg in a dizzying jab to the face and knocked him off balance long enough for her to round her blade back into a forward lunge. Cayde stumbled back on instinct, tripped over his heels, turned and bolted toward the courtyard frantically, Laila in tail.  
His first instinct was to go up- vertical movement was a known shortcoming of those that had learned to blink, and he may have had a chance if he could just…

Cayde launched himself into a triple jump and dropped heavily on the balcony outside of the window where the rest of his peers had been watching him, and for a moment wild eyes locked onto Brask’s, repeatedly screaming the question “ _WHY_ ”.  
But Andal threw him a quiet smirk and popped his brows quietly as he nodded over Cayde’s shoulder.  
Shutters opened wide and he dove out of the way of the descending blade, rolled a few times and picked himself up mid-sprint and leapt onto the bridge that would lead him to the hangar bay. He could hear Andal’s laughter in the distance.

As bystanders expressed their surprise at the fight taking place, Nik threw Andal a questioning look that he replied to by shaking his head and holding up a hand in a gesture of “Give it a moment”.

But he hadn’t lost her yet- Cayde flew off the top floor and darted out the side entry, around the corner and up the stairs, right back into the room from where they’d come, then banked a hard right out the upper hall, launched himself off the balcony outside and smashed into the ground harder than he’d anticipated. Knees wobbled as he pushed on, but he knew he couldn’t keep this up for long. She’d catch him sleeping sooner or later.  
He sprinted to the railing and had looped around the curvy trunked tree in the courtyard when he stopped on a dime mid-stride and brought his arm and elbow back heavily into her neck; he caught her by surprise and she took a hard impact, but before he could drop her, Laila whipped a hand up around his upper arm and locked on tight as she fell and moved her legs between them to brace his fall on her.  
Cayde’s shutters dilated and he grimaced as he realized what she was doing; the second she hit the ground she rolled back over her shoulders and shot him over her head with her powerful legs, sending him sprawling through the air with a surprised yell.

He was upside down now, falling through the air and cloak flapping in the wind. Relatively speaking, they’d been dangerously close to the drop off, and he’d been in a poor position for the stunt she’d just pulled. _Oh god, she did it, she threw me over the edge didn’t she_? Panic shot through him for a split-second as he looked down to spot his landing, and he fell onto the railing with a deep squat to cushion his descent and used his free hand to stabilize his sway before he jumped away from her again, this time in the opposite direction.

Lips curled into a small snarl as she rolled onto her stomach and braced her legs under her in a runner’s stance, lurched two steps forward then blinked up into air after him, arcblade at the ready.

Cayde whipped his blade around in a panic, just able to deflect her attack, drew a knife from his thigh with his free hand and countered with a second slash that she wasn’t prepared for. She let out an audible gasp and snapped up her other arm to meet the blade with the sheath of her own knives strapped to her forearm, and they met with a loud _CLANK_ ; their eyes met for only a moment and flared their determination like an updraft, and Laila ( _full of fury_ ) drove an explosive fist into his jaw, popping off arc with the force of a Titan and shocking him both mentally and physically.

He went down hard again and smacked his head on the pavement, which sent his sensors into disarray. Cayde didn’t get up right away this time. Arcblade discharged as it faded and he let out a loud groan as he squirmed and tried to roll over onto his side.  
He was way in over his head, she had him on the run; the only reason he’d managed to get _one lucky shot_ because he was cunning and he knew cheap worked well in a fight, but she wouldn’t fall for that again. Laila’s subroutines were already calculating algorithms to anticipate a repeat.

But when he wasn’t attacked right away, Cayde sat bolt upright and head whipped around in frantic search. Where _was_ she…?  
Dread soaked into him and he gave a low hum in his chest as he stood upright and cautiously looked around. She was cloaked, there was no running now.  
Cayde stepped around the area slow and cautious, listening for the ringing of her shields.  
The stillness was alarming- for nearly a minute, the only noises Cayde heard were the faint voices of worried or intrigued bystanders and their feet against the pavement as they moved indoors away from the fray, as if they knew what was coming. The thought made him shudder. _Oh god_ , he whined to himself, _she really IS going to kill me_.

“Okay…!” he started with a yell to attempt to lure her out of hiding, lifted both hands in the air. “You’ve made your point! You were right,” he admitted begrudgingly, half mumbled. “I’m not very good at this!” At this point, he would have rather been teased for conceding the fight, rather than continuing to have his ego beaten into the ground. Cayde knew when to give up and try another day.  
Head whipped around left, right, back, front, looking for any disturbances in his vision, but he growled in frustration when he found nothing.

“Psst… _Flint_ …” he whispered quietly to empty air.  
“Yes Cayde?” replied the friendly voice of his ghost, though it remained out of sight.  
“Little help here…?” he agonized as he gestured around the area.  
“I’m sorry Cayde, I can’t do that.”  
The Exo’s eyes flared. “What!? Why not?”  
An annoyed vibe passed to him through the light flow. “Because it violates the code of combat- per Crucible regulations, one-on-one elimination is a predatory trial-”  
“This isn’t the Crucible, those rules don’t apply here!” he almost growled.  
“Laila issued a direct challenge that was authorized by the Vanguard,” he replied. “Therefore, making this a sanctioned event under the jurisdiction of Crucible regulations.”  
“What? No, that’s a load of-”  
“I’m sorry Cayde, I’m afraid I cannot grant you aide until this is over. So you might as well finish it.”

Cayde’s fans spun loud and angry… sassed by his own ghost even. What were the odds that his luck had been _this_ bad today? For a brief moment he thanked the Nine that it wasn’t a gambling kind of day; he would have lost a fortune betting on the wrong horse.

“Oh and Cayde? One last thing…”  
“What is it?”  
“On your nine.”  
“What-”

Like a whirlwind she shed her cloaking and charged him from his left. Spinning blade grazed the hem of his hood as he narrowly leaned back out of the way, and instincts were quick to strike back but he hit empty air. The huntress turned on toe and side-stepped around him with a quick pirouette and struck him across the back and side of his arm; Cayde stumbled forward, then to one knee with a groan as she blinked past in repeated strikes that he just couldn’t keep up with. His shields were failing fast and he couldn’t move, and she’d just knocked back his head and left his neck exposed. Her arc was too much, he wouldn’t survive another hit.

“I’m sorry!”

Laila’s blade froze mid-strike, less than an inch from his cringing face, in merciful gesture to his efforts. Pale blue lights bore down on him and cast their judgment for several long moments before the arc finally evaporated and left him her outstretched hand.

Cayde blinked back at her with tired eyes and let out a deep whirring in relief, and collapsed down onto his back on the ground. “Just… just gimme a few minutes…” he mumbled as he attempted to wave her off.

Eyes scanned him with a soft smirk as she took a few steps toward him, leaned down with her hands on her knees and stood in the line of the sun so he could see her a little better. “Do I need to _carry you_ , hotshot…?”

The lights in Cayde’s throat throbbed softly in embarrassment for a moment and he rolled his eyes and reached up with one arm to shield them as he laughed.

_Never again_ , he thought in all seriousness. He’d never forget the consequences of insulting her pride.

 

“So…?” Nik turned anxiously to Callie as he asked the question. “Time?”

“One minute, forty nine seconds,” she replied with a quiet smile in her posture, and apologized as she saw the disappointment in his eyes. “I’m sorry sweetie.”

“ _SON OF A_ -” Andal lifted a fist and bit down on one finger as he turned away and continued to curse loudly.

Bennett shrugged and gave him a firm sympathy pat on the shoulder as he passed. “I’ll give ya blokes two weeks t’cough up ya glimma,” he said as he popped his brows and descended the stairs. “Betta pick up some extra bounties the next week a’two!”

Merric was beaming- he’d known how this was going to play out, but he never tired of watching her fight. It was one of many reasons he had fallen in love with her. Like a storm, she was beauty and grace, and unstoppable destruction, and she wore it well… almost too well. There weren’t many that could match her resonance, strength, and skill, and as a Gunslinger, Cayde never stood a chance.

“That’s my girl…” he mumbled with a bemused grin. “That’s my girl…”


End file.
